On a beautiful summer day in 2007, my son, then 10 years old, fell 35 feet from a tree, and was severly injured. He spent three months in the hospital; and he has healed. Many doctor appointments and tests followed his homecoming, and one such follow-up test showed evidence that a bone in his right arm which he had fractured during the fall stopped growing. In fact, the doctor didn't have much hope that it would grow again.

When I told my son the news, he was quiet for a moment, and then looked up and said, "You know, mom, when I'm grown up, I have a lot of stories to tell".

His response filled me with tenderness and awe. Here was a 10 year old boy -- embracing with such lightness and grace a situation that most grown-ups would have a hard time accepting.

Our lives are stories. Though we cannot entirely control the content or story-line of our lives, we can decide what and how we tell it.

For You Are Made of Stars is part of my story. It is an extension of many years of studying and teaching yoga and meditation, and the result of two defining personal life events: my son's accident, and the death of my mother when I was 19.

These two major events attuned me at the core of my being to the heartaches and suffering of others. They also proved to be a raw testing ground for the effectiveness and potency of a yogic mindset in the midst of loss, hardship and trial, and confirmed the relevance and practicality of Eastern wisdom for managing life's challenges and the whole spectrum of human experience.

For You Are Made of Stars is dedicated to my son Felix, and to all children, women and men who are committed to overcome circumstances, obstacles, injuries or personal history to connect to their intrinsic strength, wholeness and beauty.